Chapter Twenty: A New Commander

The sun had just begun to rise, revealing more of the ruined city, as the Knight Descendants and their entourage made their way back towards the market. Defeat etched clearly on every one of their faces as they trudged forwards. Unable to comprehend what had just happened. Or perhaps they just didn't want to.

Kara was in the lead this time, the wet stain on her trousers thankfully hidden beneath the leather armour that covered her body. She was almost reverently carrying Furela, clutching it to her chest, as if the blade would evaporate should she let go. The encounter with the masked man was still fresh in her mind, as it was with everyone else. No one spoke as they walked through the winding streets, minds gone as they relived that moment again and again.

Dran had yet to wake up from the blow he had been delivered and was now being carried by one of the guard, his face a mess of swollen, black bruises. Physically the strongest of all the Descendants, Dran should have been able to withstand anything, his training was absolute. Since his birth he was taught the ways of the mage and warrior, his endurance seemingly unending to his fellows, who often times looked on in awe at the physical control he had at his disposal.

But it was all for naught. Their strongest had been beaten with one attack, an almost negligent backhand that had very nearly killed the stubborn dwarf.

Lor's head was hanging, his hand weakly gripped around his scimitar as he shuffled forwards. His wounds been treated by Hilin's healer, but the mental scars of being so thoroughly defeated, and through the use of his own technique, left him shaking. His eyes glanced up and met Kara's for but a second. She gave him a rare smile, small though it was she hoped that he would return it. But the cocky half-elf merely dropped his head again, shame overtaking him.

Mahalis was the most put together, as he didn't have to face the man directly. But he wasn't gripping The Angelis' hilt as he usually did, afraid that the blade would lash out with emotion again. Even Kara could feel the fear, still emanating from the blade, as she felt it's aura looking outwards, as if afraid of seeing the masked man again.

They arrived at the marketplace in a few hours, the statue of Corus waiting for them, as well as the two guards they had left behind with the bandit, Bartu, who was sitting on a piece of rubble nearby, having given up on escape when he realised his captors were mages.

When he saw the group, Bartu's face went pale. “Ya saw him, didn't ya?

Kara merely gave the bandit a look that very clearly conveyed that he was still a prisoner and the Bartu's head lowered, trying to escape that piercing stare.

Hilin walked over and exchanged a few words with the two guards in hushed tones before they gave her a nod and began to set up camp for the night.

“What are they doing, Hilin? We need to get out of here and after those thieves!” Mahalis shouted, as he stomped up to the leader of his protection detail.

The eleven woman turned to the prince and gave him a glare. “With all due respect, my prince, I will not have you run off and get yourself killed.”

“What are you talking about?! If all of us attack this man and his friends at once there is no way-”

“She's right.” Lor said, his tone soft as he leaned against the base of the statue, one hand placed against his forehead “We can't fight this guy. You didn't see, Mahalis. I think The Angelis saved you. But the three of us saw... we can't beat him.” Lor finished, his tone bitter and full hatred.

Mahalis turned to his companion, stunned that the always sarcastic Lor was being serious for once. “So what? You're just going to sit there like a coward?! Pretend like nothing happened? He nearly killed Dran for fucks sake! We need to attack now while they don't expect it.”

There was silence for a moment before Lor's laughter filled the air. Not joyous but mocking.

“You really think you have a chance to beat someone like that, oh greatest of princes? Look around! Dran's off in dream land because his head almost got taken off, Kara's sword stroke was stopped with a fucking finger and the bastard turned my own power against me! We have no chance! I say we wait for Dran to wake up, then we head for Scarl Forest and Knight Cinder. She might be strong enough to deal with this problem, but the four of us haven't got a hope in hell.”

A sneer appeared on Mahalis' face as he walked over to the half-elf, who stood and faced up to the prince, their noses nearly touching as their expressions only darkened.

“I never thought the prince of the sea would be such a coward! To think that they call you a great swordsman, all I see is a scared little boy who wants to run away!” Mahalis hissed, the scorn in his expression would be enough to make almost anybody wither, but Lor merely returned his gaze, his top lip curling as he looked at Mahalis.

“I'm the coward? I'm not the one who ran away when we were facing that fucker. Some commander you turned out to be!” Lor sneered, causing Mahalis' expression to falter and his head to blaze red in shame.

“Enough!”

The two Descendants turned to find Kara looking at them, her eyes blazing with anger. As their gazes shifted they saw the whole of the guard looking at them, Hilin in front, staring at them with the same intensity as Kara was. Mahalis took a step back from Lor and looked at him for a second, before grunting and turning to walk away.

“He's right, Mahalis.” Kara spoke again, her tone firm and unyielding, causing Mahalis to pause in his retreat, his back tensing as he waited for her to finish. “We can't fight this, this threat is too much for us. If there is one thing we can learn from this it is that our pride won't get us anywhere.”

She turned to Lor “You can't fight him, because he's a better swordsman than you are, not only that he knows your technique, but does it better.” She faced Mahalis “You can't fight him, because The Angelis won't let you, you haven't bonded it and, for some reason, it's terrified of that man.”

“And you? Why can't you fight him?” Lor said, his arms folding, his expression remained unchanged.

Kara took a deep breath “I can't fight him because he scares me, to the point of where I can't move or think. Plus, I don't think I could hurt him if I tried.”

The whole host was silent for a few seconds. They had thought about this in their minds, or in Lor's case, spoken about them, but they hadn't had someone come right out and tell them that bluntly.

“So what do we do?” Mahalis said between gritted teeth, his fists clenched by his sides. He couldn't say no to Kara's truth. Lor had said it as well. The Angelis wouldn't allow him to fight this man, he was positive of that. For what reason, he could only guess. But he felt like he must do something. They had failed so badly in their mission that it wasn't even worth calling a failure, better suited would be disaster.

“We do as Lor suggests, as your mother suggested. We go to Scarl Forest and speak with Knight Cinder in the Red Citadel.”

“Right, so we go running off to Aunt Cinder and hope she doesn't kill us for being so fucking stupid as to lose one of the most dangerous artefacts in Vita.” Mahalis said, his expression now hopeless.

All of them had met Cinder at some point in their lives, she liked to meet the new additions to the Knight Descendants, she considers them as something of an extended family. But they all knew just how mad Cinder could be at times. Lor shivered as he thought back to his first meeting with the vampire. She had visited from Scarl Forest and his mother had been so happy to see her. They spent at least a week together around the island before Cinder got...hungry.

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As a result, a team of fishermen ended up dying, at least twenty men. All drained of blood. The strange thing was Faral didn't even look that surprised, she just sighed, ordered that it be cleaned up, and went on like nothing had happened.

His mother had once said that Corus could control her, but with him gone she had started to slip back into her old ways.

“She won't hurt us, she's not that much of a monster... she just gets a little violent sometimes.” said Lor weakly “But perhaps we should go and see Knight Abhor, just in case.”

Surprisingly, Mahalis started furiously nodding his head. “Excellent idea, Lor! We shall go and see Lord Abhor first-”

“No” Kara said, raising her hand “We're going to Scarl Forest, as we were ordered too. I don't understand why you two are so scared. I met Cinder as well and she was lovely.”

She failed to mention however that when Cinder had visited the capital of Faroth all of the prisoners in the dungeon had died due to severe blood loss.

The two princes bowed their heads for a second before nodding in acceptance.

Kara clapped her hands together “Right! We rest and wait for Dran to wake then we hit the road. We won't travel at speed like we did when we came, we should remain alert and wary. Even then, it'll take us a week to reach Scarl Forest.”

“As you wish, commander.” Lor said sarcastically with a bow, his eyes finding Mahalis.

The prince of the Elven Empire merely scrunched up his face and turned away from the half-elf, pulling Kara along with him.

“He's not wrong, you know? I'm not really good at this whole leadership thing. It would probably be best if you take over for the time being, I mean, you really are more level-headed than the rest of us.”

Kara bowed her head once, accepting the role. She thought this was for the best. Lor and Mahalis had been about to kill each other back there, not to mention Lor's antics on the road with Dran. They needed someone to lead who was above all that.

“I agree, I'll take over until we reach Scarl Forest, after that, we'll figure it out.” Kara answered, her face reverting to it's trademark complete lack of emotion.

Mahalis gave the princess a smile and turned to the commander of his guard “Hilin! Kara's in command now, you answer to her, not to me, understood?”

Hilin looked up and gave a nod to the prince and to the lady Kara. Of course, while they continue to play their games of who's commanding who, the truth was that Hilin was sent along to protect all four of them. Technically, none of them have the authority to order members of the royal guard around except for Mahalis, and Queen Marwen had very clearly stated that if those orders would put him at risk, Hilin had the authority to overrule the young prince.

But at least Kara actually thought before she acted, so Hilin felt a little better with her at the helm. She would go along with the order's as long as they don't put any of them in danger.

Kara fastened Furela to her belt and made her way over to her own pack, left behind with the two guards, and began to take out her bedroll. The sunrise had not had an effect on the rest of her companions, Lor and Mahalis were asleep within minutes, rolled up on the floor, while the guards began to sort themselves into watches, the one's who had been with them on the plateau getting to sleep first while the two who had remained with Bartu would stand guard until being relieved.

The bandit in question still looked pale after witnessing the talk between Lor and Mahalis, shivering slightly as he kept looking around, wide awake, as if he expected the storm-caller to fall upon him at any minute.

Kara wrapped herself in her bedroll and laid on the ground, clutching the hilt of Furela desperately underneath the blanket. Mahalis had said that she was the best person to lead but even she herself wasn't so sure, the image of the man stopping her sword with a single motion fixed itself into her mind as she closed her eyes and fell asleep, tumbling into a world of nightmares.

* * *

Kara woke with a start, for a moment she thought the nightmares followed her from her dream and she cried out in panic, but they faded like mirages and she was left alone in the dark. Breathing heavily, sweat covering her body as she tried to bring herself fully back into reality.

She was surprised to see that it was night, the stars racing across the skies as the moon hung above them, the light from which illuminated the marketplace, giving it an otherworldly beauty.

Kara pushed off her bedroll and jumped to her feet, stretching her body and looking around for any other early, or in this case late, risers.

She looked around, most of the others were asleep, with two guards on watch that gave her a nod before returning to their duty. She saw Mahalis snoring away, cuddling The Angelis as drool dripped from his open mouth.

She couldn't help but smile at the sight. The young man had tried so hard to get her to marry him, but he didn't understand that she didn't want gifts that costed exorbitant amounts of gold. He was relatively innocent when it came to women, something that came across rather clearly whenever she spoke to him. He stood there and blushed to his roots, almost unable to form coherent sentences. Perhaps if he asked directly, instead of running around the subject, she may have been more receptive, but she was far too young to get married. She had yet to finish her schooling at The Spires at the end of the pilgrimage and she had duties as First Daughter of Faroth. Duties which she would not shirk because of a pretty elven prince.

As much as that would be nice.

Kara smiled again and shook her head. She heard the sound of laughter coming over from the direction of the statue and saw two people sitting on lumps of rubble in front of the golden grave marker, passing something back and forth between the two of them. She rolled her eyes, she knew exactly who these two were. She began to make her way forwards.

“You know what I mean though, right? Mahalis is always pining after Kara, I wonder if he thinks no one knows. I mean, he's an idiot, but not that much of an idiot, you know what I mean?” Lor said, his words very slightly slurred as he passed the bottle of wine back over to his companion, the battered but whole dwarf, Dran.

“Aye, I see what you mean. Honestly, I can't believe you people like women that tall, I mean, if I had a choice between Kara and a beautiful, buxom dwarven maiden, you can bet anything that I'm going with the dwarf.” Dran burped and gulped on the bottle.

“Hey! Leave some for me you greedy bastard.” Lor cried and wrestled the bottle from Dran before looking up into the sky with a philosophical expression on his face. “I was so close to death... I've never been with a dwarf before, imagine! Me! The great lover, Lor, never bedding a dwarf, or a wolf kind... or a vampire... All of my future endeavours were almost all taken away.”

Dran laughed “Great lover... really? I've bedded a thousand more women than you have, pretty boy!”

Lor gave the dwarf a grin “You want to bet on that-”

“What're you two talking about?” Kara asked, her tone tired.

The two Descendants jumped and almost fell off their makeshift chairs.

“Kara! What a surprise, we were just talking about... Dran's... mother!” Lor smiled, proud of himself for such an amazing answer.

Dran began nodding fervently “Aye, my mother is the greatest woman in all of Vita, let me tell ya!”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Right, so why were you talking about bedding women? Unless Dran, you have given Lor permission to start courting your mother, in which case, I'm all for it.”

Lor erupted into laughter as Dran's face turned to a boiling red.

“Shut up, you little half-elf!” Dran roared and threw a hay-maker at Lor's head which he easily avoided.

Kara moved forwards and snatched the bottle out of Dran's hand, taking a swig as Lor continued to laugh on the ground. It wasn't long before Lor's laughter infected Dran who started laughing as well, his sides splitting as he leaned forwards.

After a few minutes the laughter died and a rare moment of comfortable silence set in as the three friends sat together and passed around the bottle of wine.

“So, who do you think he was?” Lor asked, breaking the silence as he passed the bottle to Dran.

“Who? The masked man? I have no idea, only that he was strong enough to wield Xolumbrandir, which really is all you need to know.” Kara said, the wine beginning to work it's magic as she settled down with her eyes closed, leaning against the base of Corus' statue.

Dran grumbled “How do we know that it wasn't the sword itself? The tales said that no one could use it but the King and he's long dead.”

“No, couldn't be that. My mother told me all about the sword, she was with Corus and Marwen when they went to retrieve it. The man who was possessed didn't speak rationally. He just acted on one impulse... to destroy.” Lor said, his gaze fixed on the statue.

“I agree. It couldn't have been the sword, but it's not the King either. It couldn't be. That bandit said that he was a young man, and The Angelis was afraid of him, neither of those things would've happened if it was Corus.” Kara continued, her eyes squinted in thought.

“Ha, what if it was? Wouldn't that be all sorts of fucked up? He wears the King's mask and wields the King's sword... What if the The Rebel King walks on Vita again and the first thing he does is beat the shit out of his Knight Descendants?” Dran laughed then, spilling some of the wine he was drinking onto the ground as his voice echoed around the market. Kara was surprised that it woke no one up, the laughter so infectious that it even got her to crack a smile for a second.

“The ice shatters! Ha! Knew you had emotions, Kara. Told you, Lor, pay up!” Dran said, his finger rising and aiming at the half-elves face.

“Shut up, Dran! Of course I have emotions, just because I don't go around flaunting how I'm feeling doesn't mean I'm made of ice... wait, you two had a bet!”

Lor listened to his fellows argue, without really hearing. His gaze was fixed on the statue in front of him, the place where the mask used to be, underneath was nothing but smooth polished gold, as if the King's face was merely the mask itself.

'It couldn't be... could it?'